Wikis

Wikis are an easy way to set up a website. The thing that makes wikis special is that they are intended to be collaborative which is quite a shift from traditional websites where visitors can't contribute (except in a "guestbook").
 * Wikis have layers of privacy
 * they can be public, where anyone on the internet can edit them (e.g. Wikipedia)
 * they can be semi-private, where anyone can view them but only invited people can edit them
 * they can be totally private, where only invited people can view or edit them
 * Wikis automatically track all changes and keep a snapshot of each version--click the "history" tab on any page. This is a great feature for teaching about the revision process in a writing assignment!
 * Wikis also provide a "discussion" tab for each page, where users can discuss changes to the page before (or after!) actually making them. It's nice to have the page and the "meta page" (the page about the page) paired up. This could be useful for a group project: students would have a place to prepare the content of the project (the Wiki page proper) and also a place to have a discussion about their work on the project (the Wiki discussion page attached to the proper page).
 * Wikis are easily edited--it's like using a text editor, although without all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Word!
 * Wikis are easily linked. To link to another page within this wiki:
 * go to the page where you want the link to appear
 * click "edit" on that page
 * highlight the text that you want linked and click on the "chainlink" icon at the top of the screen:[[image:link.png]]


 * For more information, check out the help page.

=Your Mission (Should you choose to accept)=

You will have 15 minutes to research the use of wikis in education. Use the websites below to get started.Your goal is to add some examples of wikis in the classroom to the bottom of this page. (To edit this page, click on the edit tab at the upper right of this page). At the end of the 15 minutes, you will make a brief presentation (1-2 minutes), which will


 * Define wikis
 * Collaborative knowledge base edited by users
 * Can be private or public
 * Important to cite sources


 * Provide example(s) of how wikis can be used in your content area (be specific!)
 * collaborative story writing
 * collective research
 * peer editing papers
 * targeted journaling

To get started, check out these links http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis []